More than an Add-on: the Centrality of Gender Equality for Development and Climate Solutions
A Look at Gender at IDA 16
Introduction: Framing the Issue of Gender in the World Bank Context
Gender equality is highlighted as a special theme in the ongoing 16th round of replenishment talks for the International Development Association (IDA 16). A discussion about gender equality at the World Bank group is not new, however. Since 2001, the World Bank has had an official gender mainstreaming strategy, thus following the recommendation articulated by the international community at the Beijing World Women Conference in 1995 to integrate gender consideration into all aspects of its work. With this approach, the World Bank Group is in line with the UN organizations and efforts by national governments to make substantial progress toward gender equality. Thus, far more than being a voluntary standard or a take-it-or-leave-it recommendation, gender mainstreaming expresses a commitment and fundamental obligation of the international community and its organizations, such as the World Bank, to make gender equality a guiding normative principle throughout their actions and operations. While the World Bank itself does not formally accept a human-rights framework as normative reference for its operations, the Bank is nevertheless required through its action to not violate, but instead uphold fundamental human rights, including gender equality rights, of the people it aims to serve. World Bank member countries – donors as well as “clients” – individually have signed on to important human rights and gender equality legal frameworks, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights (ICECSR) or the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
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